Driving in Neutral (30 page)

She went down the hall to Ella’s room and didn’t flinch when Nathan snapped a photo. She helped Ella traverse the grand front staircase and stood for several more photos with the bride and her attendants.

In the living room, she began to oversee the final pre-ceremony moments in a blur of speeding interchanges, handing out bouquets, and posing for more group photos. She checked Suzanne’s mouth for gum, made sure Mimi was silver bell free, and Justine was wearing pearls like the other two bridesmaids.

“I’m a bride, I’m a
bride
!” Ella gushed.

Mr. Thomas choked up and wiped his eyes with a hankie. “Button you’re a vision.”

“Oh Daddy.” She kissed her father’s cheek. Her lovely brow furrowed in sudden uncertainty as she looked at her friends. “Do I look like a bride?”

At last, after spending the weekend shirking their bridesmaid responsibilities, Justine, Mimi and Suzanne cooed and fluttered about Ella, heaping praise, sweetness and compliments on her.

“You look beautiful, honey.” Mimi smiled, tiny dewdrops in her eyes.

“Yes, you do. Just stunning,” Justine said with baby-doll breathiness, and meant it.

Suzanne clasped Ella’s hand and kissed it. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”

“Do I? Do I Olivia? Do you think Craig will think so? Do you think he’ll have this memory of how I look forever?”

The string quartet in the garden outside began to play Ponchielli’s three and a half minute
Danza Della Ore
, the signal for the bridesmaids to begin their way to the gazebo.

“Yes, Ella. You’re lovely. Absolutely lovely.” Olivia heard herself say the words as she kissed Ella. Hands shaking, she moved to drape the veil over the bride’s face.

Ella was radiant as a bride was meant to be. “It’s perfect, Olivia. Perfect. Thank you. I could see it all from upstairs. The place is magical. Daddy, Mommy, and I all think it’s splendid. Thank you for all of this. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

Emotion rose high in Ella’s voice and Olivia lifted the veil free, a tissue ready to catch the happy tears before they made it over her lower eyelids. “Okay, none of that now. Don’t spoil it. You can cry after, okay?” she said, realizing she could do the same.

Ella nodded and her father choked up again and had to blow his nose.

“Be happy, Ella. Be happy and have a wonderful long life with Craig. Be happy. Love one another. Show us all how to do it. Be an example to us all.” She readjusted the veil.

Ella squeezed Olivia’s hand and pulled her into an embrace.

Olivia barely felt the pressure of the arms around her. Her mind was wholly concentrated on the music. “Okay girls, it’s time. Don’t forget to pause at the door for a photo, Mimi.”

Suzanne swallowed the gum she’d surreptitiously hidden and followed Mimi a few moments later. Justine counted to fifteen before she stepped outside.

Olivia moved Ella and Mr. Thomas to the door. She straightened the rose in Mr. Thomas’s buttonhole and fixed the bottom of the softly flowing wedding dress, careful to keep it free of Ella’s shoes and anything that might snag the hem. She placed the simple, two shades of pink bouquet into Ella’s hands. “Count to fifteen after me and then out you go.”

Eyes fixed straight ahead, Olivia stepped out onto the terrace and made her way to the rose garden. She passed a grinning Karl sitting with his well-endowed, yellow-clad date, moved toward the steps at the base of the gazebo and waited for the music to change and cue the bride’s entrance, knowing exactly how perfectly orchestrated everything had been.

She’d been so focused on the goal of making Ella’s wedding the stuff of their girlish dreams that she never guessed someone had arranged to include her as part of the occasion. She felt Emerson Maxwell’s gaze steady upon her face as he stood on the steps and when she moved up to take her place, he smiled. Olivia’s eyes burned, her shaking hands squeezed around the stems of a ribbon-wrapped bunch of dark and light pink roses, and she counted every breath she took.

Two months of meticulous planning and precision execution led to a fifteen-minute ceremony that ended when Ella and Craig sealed their vows with a kiss. They stood for a moment to accept the applause of their wedding guests. Both of them beaming, they marched arm in arm back through the rose garden to the house while the string quartet played
Ode to Joy
.

Olivia stood aside and waited for the newlyweds to pass. These fifteen minutes, she decided, were an absolute anticlimax. She’d missed nothing by getting married in a town hall. She was an idiot to believe planning an elaborate weekend, an outdoor ceremony with over seventy guests and having a beautiful dress was something that could make any kind of difference to how a wedding felt. What had given that idea credence? Why had she bought into the hype? Her two weddings had led to disappointment.

And so had this one.

With a smile, Emerson offered Olivia his arm. She took it. Her fingers dug into the fabric of his jacket. He’d glanced at her so many times during the ceremony and felt a little tightness in his throat. He’d gotten a little misty-eyed. So had she. She’d watched Ella and Craig intently as they exchanged rings and vows and her eyes had filled with tears. When he caught her gaze, he knew by the way she didn’t let those tears fall, by the rhythmic rise and fall of her breasts, and the cadence of her breathing, she was holding back emotion too. He liked knowing now that the little quiver at his elbow was proof what she felt for him had affected her as deeply as it had him.

As they walked toward the terrace, his throat was still tight.

“Excuse me,” she said, and slipped her arm from his. She waved at Vivian, meeting the woman near the windows outside the sunroom. The housekeeper looked amused and then perplexed as Olivia spoke. Vivian glanced around at the guests milling about and then back to the woman giving her instructions. Then she nodded and hurried into the house.

A moment later, he was back at her side. His hand slid around her waist and Olivia stumbled, her very high heel catching in a skinny space between flagstones. He tried to steady her, but she’d already regained her footing on the steps. “I gather that was important?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “It’s probably the most important thing I’ll do today.” Testing cars was all about pushing the design to see exactly what a vehicle could do, how it handled in specific situations, and what its limitations were, but in racing cars, taking risks and finding an opening was part of the sport. Olivia had found her hole and made a decision to alter part of the course for the rest of the evening. She slipped from his grasp and moved swiftly, lifting her dress clear of her toes to go up the terrace steps ahead of him, glancing at the small gold watch on her small wrist. “It’s pre-reception cocktails for the next thirty minutes while the bride and groom have their photos taken. Then everyone moves down to the boat house for the receiving line.”

“Thirty minutes?”

She looked at him, her eyes narrow and intensely dark, her mouth twitching, her voice sensually dropping low as her palm pressed against his cheek. “Yes, an entire half hour is plenty of time for us to take the happy couple’s bags down to their car.”

He grinned. “You know I love the little talks we have in cars.”

People began to filter out of the rose garden and onto the terrace. The balls of her feet were aching in Ella’s compulsory shoes, but Olivia ignored the discomfort. A voice at the bottom part of her mind shouted something at her, but she ignored that too. She felt hot all over and she only got warmer when he moved behind her, his hand cool and possessive on the back of her neck. His trailing fingers sent a feverish chill down her spine. She inhaled slowly, steadily, keeping everything in check. When he leaned over, cupped a hand under her chin, and kissed her languidly she wanted to bite him.

Emerson felt Olivia stiffen. “I’m making you feel self-conscious, kissing you at the top of the stairs with all these people around, aren’t I?” he said, curling a strand of her hair through his fingers.

“Not really.”

“Your face is a little red.”

“Is it?” she half-whispered.

Emerson smiled and moved to kiss her again, but stopped when he noticed Karl beside them, a shapely blonde on his arm. “Ah, I see.”

The blonde was completely Martin’s taste and looked oddly familiar. It took a couple of seconds before Emerson realized he’d seen her on a calendar in his Lexus mechanic’s workshop.
Miss January
had been strategically soaped up, but her assets had been just as visible as they were in the canary yellow dress she barely wore now. “I think your ex’s got some rocks to actually show up,” he muttered.

“Some men think everything’s a sport,” she said. She turned and Karl stopped beside them with his pouting honey pot companion.

Karl took a step toward Olivia.

Was the man serious? Oh no, there was no fucking way in hell Karl was giving his ex-wife the same greeting he gave her last time and Emerson lowered his head and bared his teeth in something that wasn’t a smile as much as a threat that said
try it dickwhistle and I’ll disembowel your Mercedes-driving German ass
.

The smarter-than-he-looked ex-husband made no move to come any closer. He simply smiled handsomely. Emerson had to admit the guy was good-looking, if you liked that sort of blond Bavarian god kind of thing. “Hallo, Emerson and
Olifia
,” he said, “I vorgesst to make introductions. This
ist
DeeDee.”

DeeDee’s glossy hot pink mouth twitched.

Olivia lifted her chin. “Karl,” she said, “we need to talk.”

Emerson watched Karl bend forward. “
Ja Katzchen
?” he said, smiling beatifically and looking down at Olivia.

“You owe me this.”

“
Ja
. Okay, I owe you, but DeeDee—”

“DeeDee won’t mind, will you DeeDee?”

“Okay.
Was
word
ist
it you want?”

Olivia rattled off something in German and Emerson’s hand wandered over the bare part of her back. He played with the loose strands of hair at the base of her softly scented neck and wanted so much to nibble on that little sensitive spot he discovered she had just below her hairline.

He watched Karl’s expression change several times. The man glanced at him with his eyebrows hooked in surprise and he shook his flaxen head in amusement or disbelief. Emerson couldn’t tell which it was, nor could he guess what they were saying, but he thought he had a pretty good idea they were talking about him because Karl gave him the once-over, his blue eyes squinting before he turned his attention back to Olivia.

“
Wirklich
?” Karl said.

“Yes.
Really
.” Olivia nodded and paused a moment. Emerson felt her fingers brush the back of his hand, and she continued speaking in German until Karl stopped making faces and looked like he found something utterly hilarious.

The blonde centerfold in yellow looked bored and annoyed she hadn’t been included in the conversation. Karl’s girlfriend sighed heavily and shot Emerson a look that oozed sex. She put the tip of her finger into her pouting mouth and sucked to further her point.

Emerson rolled his eyes.

A moment later Karl nodded. “
Ja
. Okay, fine. Then I leave,” he said, snaked an arm around his mewling, finger-sucking girlfriend, and led her away.

Slowly, Olivia exhaled her breath, blowing it from pursed lips. Emerson shifted his hands and began to knead the tension from her shoulders. “So he’s going to leave?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“You were very civilized about it. You’re always very civilized about everything. You’re civilization. I’m Cro-Magnon. In fact, I’m feeling pretty cave man right now.”

She looked back at him. “I never believe in making a scene. I prefer to take care of things quietly without a lot of fuss. You won’t believe how effective that can be.”

“I am very aware of how quietly you can manage a situation. Did you know DeeDee was a Miss January on one of those calendars auto mechanics like to hang in their shops?”

“That doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think anything really does anymore.” She sighed.

“Did you really love that guy?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell him about us?”

“Yes, I did. He thought it was a very funny idea.”

“Yeah, I picked up on that. Is that why you feel so tight?”

“Am I tight?”

“You’re coiled up like a spring back here. Good God, I love the feel of your skin.” His fingers ran down the back of her arm with a caress and he watched goose bumps bloom on her skin.

She gazed at him over one shoulder and tears flooded her eyes.

Emerson understood overseeing the wedding had kept Olivia busy and she had been committed to the event totally. He admired her dedication to the job and her loyalty to her best friend. He’d watched her watching Ella and Craig during the ceremony and wondered how a woman so devoted to those she loved could have ever been abandoned by the men she married.

Hadn’t they known the depth of her love was all-encompassing? Couldn’t they see how precious that was?

“Shall we check to make sure Craig and Ella’s bags have been brought out to the car?” she murmured. Her tears had disappeared, her tone turned devilish, and it filled his mind with the devilish things he wanted to do to her.

When he smiled, she took his hand, pulling him up the last step. Hand in hand, they headed through the empty kitchen for the rear stairs they had used so much in the last two days. Olivia stopped abruptly and Emerson bumped into her back. She looked at him and made a face. “Oh, shit, I think somebody’s there,” she said softly.

“I don’t hear anyb—” he began and then came an unmistakably feminine tittering.

“
Nein, Nein
, DeeDee don’t go
jezt
.”

“Damn. It’s Karl and Miss January!” Emerson whispered.

Before he could protest, Olivia wrangled him backward into the open butler’s pantry. His hand shot out to stop her before she shut them inside the dark cupboard completely. He left a four-inch gap and drew her back into his chest as they stood behind the door, his chin resting on her bare shoulder.